Moody Bible Institute—Trying to Hold on to a Biblical Heritage While Riding the Wave of the Emerging Church

Several years ago, Rick Warren said something that still haunts us—leaders of the new purpose-driven, emergent “Christianity” will have to wait until resisters either leave or die before the plan can be fully implemented. In other words, they are going to eventually accomplish what they are trying to do—revamp Christianity into a “new” spirituality that will be all-inclusive, ecumenical, mystical, and with a new gospel message. But before that can happen, those who are resisting and opposing this new “Christianity” will have to be out of the way (either through getting old and dying or somehow being coerced into leaving the churches).

From the cover of Warren B. Smith's booklet on Leonard Sweet
From the cover of Warren B. Smith’s booklet on Leonard Sweet

In thinking about Moody Bible Institute and the current shake up going on there (e.g., the president and COO recently resigned), Warren’s words have come to the forefront of our minds again. Moody is struggling. According to an article in the Christian Post, Moody has shut down their Washington state campus and an extension site and let go of one third of their faculty. One can only guess what’s going on behind the scenes as Moody leadership and trustees aren’t offering many answers these days.

Moody, once considered a stalwart institution to the Gospel of Jesus Christ (named after the great evangelist D.L. Moody), began caving in to the “new” spirituality several years ago (as documented by LT), allowing contemplative, emergent influences into the school. Maybe they thought if they became culturally relevant, cool, hip, contemplative, and missional, they could continue being successful and on top of the Christian college scene. But, like the puppy with a bone in his mouth and looking at his reflection in the water hoping to have the other bone too, Moody may end up losing everything all together because they wanted both worlds—a reputation of biblical integrity and at the same time acceptance by the new and popular emergent Christianity. Maybe trustees of Moody believed Rick Warren’s co-comrade in all-things-emergent, Leonard Sweet, when Sweet said “Reinvent yourself for the 21st century or die.”

In 1995, Rick Warren and Leonard Sweet did an audio series called The Tides of Change. In the audio, they spoke of “new frontiers,” “a new spirituality,” and “waves of change.” A few years prior to The Tides of Change, Sweet wrote a book called Quantum Spirituality. This book reveals the nature of Sweet’s spiritual affinities as he talks about “christ-consciousness” and a “New Light” movement. Ray Yungen discusses Quantum Spirituality:

In [Quantum Spirituality], Sweet thanks interspiritualists/universalists such as Matthew Fox (author of The Coming of the Cosmic Christ), Episcopalian priest/mystic Morton Kelsey, Willis Harman (author of Global Mind Change) and Ken Wilber (one of the major intellectuals in the New Age movement) for helping him to find what he calls “New Light.” Sweet adds that he trusts “the Spirit that led the author of The Cloud of Unknowing.” . . .  Sweet disseminates line after line of suggestions that the “old teachings” of Christianity must be replaced with new teachings of “the New Light.” And yet these new teachings, he believes, will draw from “ancient teachings” (the Desert Fathers). This “New Light movement,” Sweet says, is a “radical faith commitment that is willing to dance to a new rhythm.”

Throughout the book, Sweet favorably uses terms like Christ consciousness and higher self and in no uncertain terms promotes New Age ideology: “[Quantum Spirituality is] a structure of human becoming, a channeling of Christ energies through mindbody experience.” (from A Time of Departing)

A few years after Rick Warren and Leonard Sweet did The Tides of Change, Warren endorsed the front and back cover of Sweet’s book, Soul Tsunami. Of Sweet’s book, Warren said: “suggests practical ways to communicate God’s unchanging truth to our changing world.” However, the “practical ways” that Sweet shares in the book include a labyrinth and visiting a meditation center. Sweet also says in the book, “It’s time for a Post Modern Reformation,” adding that “The wind of spiritual awakening is blowing across the waters.” He says that times are changing and you’d better, “Reinvent yourself for the 21st century or die” (p. 75).

In 2006, Lighthouse Trails wrote an article titled “Purpose Driven Resisters—Must Leave or Die.” Here’s a portion of it:

The phone calls and emails started coming in about three years ago. Sometimes the caller was in his mid-eighties, sometimes the caller was crying. But all of them had the same kind of story to tell – when their churches decided to get involved with 40 Days of Purpose, everything began changing and when they questioned these changes, they each soon found themselves silenced, ostracized, and eventually without a church to attend. Now today, nearly five years after Purpose Driven Life was released, thousands of believers are scattered throughout the world, having been ridiculed and demoralized for even just the slightest questioning of the Purpose Driven program. In one email we received, the young man was handed a letter from his pastor. The letter had been written by a Saddleback field representative who told the pastor to do what he had to do to get rid of those opposing the new program.

According to Rick Warren, these people are resisters and are standing in the way of Purpose Driven progress. In a June 14th article written by Rick Warren on his website (“What Do You Do When Your Church Hits a Plateau?” ), Warren told pastors and church leaders not to be discouraged about slow change in their churches. He told them it would take time . . . and in many cases it would take these resisters either leaving the church or simply dying. Warren stated:

“If your church has been plateaued for six months, it might take six months to get it going again. If it’s been plateaued a year, it might take a year. If it’s been plateaued for 20 years, you’ve got to set in for the duration! I’m saying some people are going to have to die or leave.

“Moses had to wander around the desert for 40 years while God killed off a million people before he let them go into the Promised Land. That may be brutally blunt, but it’s true. There may be people in your church who love God sincerely, but who will never, ever change.”

For Warren to couple his statement about dying or leaving with a statement about God killing off a million people is ignorant at best, subliminal at least. Coupled with his mention of 40 years in the desert and Warren’s teaching that God always did good things in numbers of 40, Warren’s intention in this statement seems obvious. In addition, the concept of get with the program, change or die is very common in New Age circles, that those who don’t get on board (or ride the wave as Leonard Sweet puts it), will have to die. Listen to the words of renown, New Ager Barbara Marx Hubbard:

“Christ-consciousness and Christ-abilities are the natural inheritance of every human being on Earth. When the word of this hope has reached the nations, the end of this phase of evolution shall come. All will know their choice. All will be required to choose. . . . All who choose not to evolve will die off.” . . .

In The Tides of Change, [Sweet and Warren] make it clear that those who don’t ride this new wave will not make it.

But, what does it really mean to “make it”? Does drifting into apostasy mean that one has made it? In God’s eyes, we are successful when we follow Him and adhere to His Word.

Will Moody “make it”? Time will tell, but the Bible is clear that we cannot serve both God and man. It won’t work. Like the majority of Christian colleges, seminaries, and universities today, Moody has been trying to hold onto their old heritage of biblical solidarity while grabbing hold of the new fast-moving postmodern, progressive “wave.” But while holding on to both, each going in the completely opposite direction, the results tragically may be an entire tearing apart that will be beyond repair. Wouldn’t it be nice (to say the least) if Moody would jump off of that fast-moving wave going toward apostasy and return fully to “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints”?

11 thoughts on “Moody Bible Institute—Trying to Hold on to a Biblical Heritage While Riding the Wave of the Emerging Church

  1. “Trying to Hold on to a Biblical Heritage While Riding the Wave of the Emerging Church” — Wise pastors used to say that things like this were indicative of people trying to straddle the fence, to have one foot in the kingdom of God and one foot in the world. They were so right. I’ve been reading the book of James lately, and chapter 4 tells this like it is! Very strong language there. People who are living in such compromise need to read God’s Word, receive it with humility, and repent before it’s too late.

  2. This all began a long time ago with DL Moody’s desire to form a school to teach Christians. There is a huge difference between the Bible’s school of Tyrannus and the business school of MBI which places people into debt and has paid professionals running it. Can anybody truly say this is the will of God or scripturally founded? Come on now. Let MBI and every other religious institution fail. None of them were ever Gods intention to begin with. They are ALL men’s fleshly and earthly inventions and towers to their own accomplishments. That’s why everything that do is in their own name. As sad as all this apostasy is- God is allowing it and even orchestrating the downfall of men’s inventions. Yes, He is shaking them and the sooner they ALL crumble the better off all real Christians will be. Jesus is building His ekklsia and doesn’t want or need our help, This alone is the pillar and support for His people- not what we build with bricks for Him. All of that will be destroyed.

  3. Sadly, I used to listen to Moody radio all the time but it has devolved into a social Gospel love fest that has lost its moral compass. They espouse moral relativism and spiritual formation. D L Moody wouldn’t recognize his own School. Sad!

  4. Lydia, that quote is from another article here. I was horrified when I read it, as it is so blatantly dishonest. You are so right — I should have pointed that out — those Israelites who did not have faith in God continued to live in the wilderness until they died. God did not “kill them”, as RW claimed. I had heard about Beth Moore for years, then went to a “Bible” study using her materials (I have since changed that to “book study”, for that’s what it is). Some of the material was scriptural, but other was not. In one of her more recent books she quoted a guy who has made some extremely unscriptural, demeaning accusations about God. She did not quote those accusations, but just the fact that she quoted him at all caused me to quit going, because I knew I couldn’t trust her from that point forward. A friend told me recently that a local Christian radio station, which has had a solid reputation, now has RW on the air. She was shocked and saddened, as am I.

  5. I don’t know the quote referred to, it may be in the article but there is the group that did not enter the land because they were rebellious and Israel wandered around for 40 years in the wilderness until they died off. Only the new generation was allowed in. This is actually a type of regeneration, being born again. Anyway, the fact is that we are the ones that enter and the followers of purpose driven are the ones that don’t enter the kingdom. Again, they have it backwards of course. I see a lot of ‘this generation’ sort of talk among emergents and I think that they think they are the ‘kingdom generation’ in that sense, and again, wrong. Yes, sadly I see RW and others like Beth Moore promoted more and more in the Calvary circle. On K-wave and other Christian stations they even have RW on the schedule, this can be verified by going to their website and looking at their program list. No one even blushes anymore, but they promote apostasy unabashedly and they promote sin brazenly. The Lord is not pleased with them.

  6. Kip, Ed Stetzer rebuked me at the Christianity Today website (which I have since given up on) because I posted a Scriptural response to a comment which had been made by someone else. I can’t say if he’s involved in New Age-y stuff, but something is not right there. Sola Scriptura, ITA with you that people do not know the scriptures, and rely on someone else to read it for them and tell them what it says. I saw this happen in the church I mentioned below. Lots of new people came in through evangelism, but their gospel was the one according to the pastor. They did not read the Word of God for themselves, and their roots were shallow. Over time, that became very obvious and it was very sad to see the results in their lives and families. This morning while reading in Numbers, I read a scripture verse which reminded me of what RW said about God “killing people in the wilderness”, referring to the people who were not allowed to enter the Promised Land (that comment may be in a different article here). Numbers 23 clearly states that the Lord told them to enter the Promised Land, but they were hesitant to go, so Moses sent the spies to spy out the land. When the spies came back, those people REFUSED to enter the Promised Land. RW falsely accused God of something He never did. This is a common tactic of atheists, but why is a Christian leader doing it? Very concerning, to say the least.

  7. The problem is that people do not know the scriptures. Instead, they rely on someone else to read it for them and tell them what it says. If the teacher is nice or cool, and says what they want to hear, then well, it must be true. When we study to show ourselves approved we see that there are more than 20 passages in the New Testament alone warning us about greedy false prophets and teachers. We see that we are told to judge by none other than Jesus and Paul, and we are told to separate ourselves not only from false teaching but also from our demonic culture. What is truth? According to Jesus Christ, thy word alone is truth. We must all eat it, drink it and breathe so that we can protect ourselves and our loved ones from the false doctrine that surrounds us…and we must share the true message of Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, crucified and risen to pay a debt in blood that we could never ever pay. He suffered horribly for our sins, and by his precious wounds…we are healed. http://followingjesuschrist3.com/2016/01/01/preach-the-word-boldly-and-do-not-be-ashamed-of-jesus-christ/

  8. Is Ed Stetzer one of the “new age” influencers? It seems, based on his time @ Lifeway, he’s quite preoccupied w/church growth and ways in which to expedite it. Thnx.

  9. We had already seen serious problems in a church we had attended for almost 20 years before RW’s Purpose-Driven materials were taught there — in Sunday School classes. Relatives were still attending (ironically, they had come at our invitation) and one woman told us that, since she and her husband could not attend just one Sunday School class that fall (for a very good reason), the teacher said that if they could not attend every week/session, not to attend at all. They were very good friends with the teacher and his wife, or at least they had thought they were. They were very hurt by that. This article reminds me of their experience –“get with the program” (in their case, that meant they couldn’t miss a single class) — “or don’t come at all”. I’m especially saddened by the compromise in Greg Laurie’s life. I pray that all of these guys will recognize the slippery slope they are descending very quickly and return to the true Gospel of Christ Jesus our Lord.

  10. Again, ironically, we are the ones who are right and of course they are wrong, but they have it the other way around. They are the ones worshipping the golden calf, and they are the ones that God will destroy in judgment. That RW is such an evil wolf, it is chilling! And the ominous could surrounding the words ‘must die.’ Wasn’t it Alice Bailey who said something about the blood ritual of cleansing in the ‘selection process’ or something like that? Anyway, the real reference is martyrdom when it comes to the faithful few, the true bride. And on a similar note, it seems to me that most have either bitten the apple of the emergent church lies and deception, or they are too old to go to church if they haven’t ‘died off’ yet. There are a few that I know but I live in a big city and met a lot of people all over and even those are more elderly. I am the only one I know who is not at retirement age. So it looks like that point in time has arrived.

  11. Rick Warren is a dangerous person, & it is sad to say that Greg Laurie & some Calvary Chapel churches have gone down this path. Greg Laurie would rather be liked & praised by Rick Warren. To top it off even Greg Laurie has embraced Hillsong, & Hillsong NYC has an open Homosexual leading worship, & Brian Houston, like Rick Warren, makes excuses & passes & lets open sin in the Body of Christ. Greg Laurie has proven to be weak. All he needs now is to embrace Pope Francis.

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